Meet Jeremy Cole | Executive Director, Clarkston Community Health Center

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeremy Cole and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeremy, how does your business help the community?
I am proud to lead an amazing team of people – board, staff, volunteers, and community members – at Mosaic Health Center (formerly the Clarkston Community Health Center) in Clarkston, Georgia. Mosaic provides access to health care for individuals who have no health insurance. We are a community of people who believes that health care is a human right, and we know that in providing access to health care to those in need we save lives, save money, and make the entire community healthier. For every $1 spent on primary care, it is estimated that $13 is saved in overall health care costs. Our work is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do.

Unfortunately in Georgia, relative to health care, we are not doing right, nor are we being smart. Late last year, Forbes ranked Georgia 45th out of 50 states in terms of health care access. We have the second highest rate of uninsured individuals, the second highest rate of residents who chose not to see a doctor in the past year due to cost, the 8th highest average deductible in the country for those with employer-sponsored health care, and the 11th lowest number of community clinics per 100,000 residents.

We should not be ranked 45th out of 50 states in healthcare access when we have the 26th highest GDP per capita in the country.

According to recent estimates, the state’s budget surplus is in excess of $10 billion. All of this prosperity, and yet nearly 12% of the population has no health insurance – equal to over 1.2 million people. Many use emergency rooms for their care, leaving chronic disease untreated and waiting to seek care until a catastrophe strikes. The economic consequences of not giving people access to ongoing primary care are significant: much higher overall healthcare costs; decreased overall economic productivity as sick individuals are unable to go to work and take care of their families; and increased medical debt, which limits one’s ability to take risks, start a new business, or get ahead.

No wonder 18 hospitals have closed in Georgia since 2000, and Atlanta ranks 50th out of 50 most populated metro areas in the United States for upward mobility.

There is simply no common sense to being so economically dynamic and yet leaving so many without access to health care.

At Mosaic, we are working hard to build a community-supported primary care model that directly addresses this issue in the most diverse square mile in Georgia. With over 15,000 without health insurance in Clarkston (30021) and Stone Mountain (30083) alone, the need is clear. To meet this need, we provide primary, preventive and specialty care with a phenomenal staff that hails from 8 different countries and collectively speaks 13 languages, and an amazing group of volunteers – many from our incredible partnership with Emory University – who come every day to support our mission. We have invested in technologies – like an in-room language interpretation platform that provides instant access to trained medical interpreters in over 300 languages – that help all of our patients feel welcome. We have strong partnerships with institutions, foundations and individuals in the community that are investing in our work. And we work every day to live up to our core values: dignity, access, excellence, innovation, compassion and community.

When a patient comes to our clinic, they receive access to our highly qualified staff, free medications, free health education and navigation services, and referrals for preventive and specialty care services. For those eligible, our partners provide free mammograms, free colonoscopies / endoscopies, and low cost imaging. We are catching and treating a range of chronic diseases and health issues that, if left untreated, could cost tens of thousands of dollars per person. All these services are provided for around $600 per person per year – a fraction of the cost of one avoidable surgery that would be required of a patient who could not access care. Through support from private foundations and individuals, corporations, and DeKalb County, our social business is helping to be part of the solution to providing access to healthcare those in need, creating significant social profit for us all.

Despite our successes, and despite the research showing that our model works, and despite the clear evidence that access to primary care is a proven solution, we still struggle to receive enough sustainable, multi-year commitments to reach more of those in need. With so much prosperity in our state, the time is now to invest in access to primary care. If we can do it in the most diverse square mile in the state – with the barriers of language and culture and transportation and a population that has significant medical needs – then we believe we can do it anywhere.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have been fortunate to have a long career in the non-profit sector. I have run summer camps and social service programs for youth and families who came to our shores as refugees, taught ESL to immigrants, worked for a charter school to help them achieve their mission, travelled the world with UNICEF USA, helping to raise funds for the urgent needs of children in some of the most challenging environments in our world, and now worked to build a social business to provide access to healthcare for those in need in DeKalb County. I have received so many more blessings than I could ever give through this work.

Through this, I have reflected on a number of things that I have learned along the way.

First of all, spending over 25 years in the “non-profit” sector has made me truly dislike the term “non-profit,” because I have never gotten up in the morning excited not to make profit. Instead, I – like so many others who work in this sector – wake up everyday trying to make a social profit, to help in some small way to bend the moral arc of the universe toward justice. And that’s why I prefer to use the term social good business, because if my career and academic studies have taught me anything, it is that non-profits need to think more like businesses, and businesses need to get back to their historical roots as fundamentally being about helping to uplift communities and not simply working to make impersonal numbers look good for investors in the next quarterly report. For those who want to do good in the world and also make a living – which is the vast majority of people I have met in my life – we must be clear-eyed about the current challenges, and then work intentionally to overcome these challenges. Non-profits often have limited and fragile budgets, with very little ability to invest in professional development. For-profit companies have too often lost sight of social good work.

For those wanting to have a career in the “non-profit” sector, gather as much business experience as you can to strengthen the fragility of the sector and find a cause that moves your heart and never be afraid to ask donors to invest in that cause through unrestricted, trust-based giving. For those in the corporate world, advocate within your company to shift from economic productivity as the sole metric to track and instead work to make human dignity and shared prosperity as additional key measurements of success. This work is already happening in many places. Join those efforts. Economic dynamism moves mountains, and is a critical part of our past and future success, but it must be guided by common sense morals of decency to people and to the planet. Both the non-profit and the for-profit sector need to evolve to create easier career pathways to allow people to make a difference and make money at the same time, and the next generation can help to make this happen.

Second, and related, let’s fight the greed economy together. In far too many places today, we have a greed economy. Capitalism is not a greed economy. Capitalism is about regulated markets and free trade – rules that give everyone a fair shot and that unleash the power of the private market within certain agreed-upon rules and moral guidelines. The greed economy, in contrast, is about unleashing the insatiable capacity of human beings to be greedy, to deny health coverage to someone in need to satisfy a shareholder, to not provide health insurance for those in need, to constantly seek profit over people. That does not work in the long run. As the saying goes, if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. The greed economy empowers people to go fast, but leaves so many behind and cannot ultimately go far. I believe in working to build a capitalist society that unleashes the better angels of our natures: the desire to make a living but also to do good. That’s a world where social benefit and welfare are part of the way we assess our success, and where destruction of communities, families and the environment is part of the way we measure our failure. That’s the well-being economy that I hope will gain steam in the years ahead.

Third, staying persistent in self-growth by maintaining a certain healthy level of discomfort to push yourself outside of your self is important. I came to Clarkston – the most diverse square mile in Georgia – as a bright-eyed kid recently out of college who had limited experience with other cultures. Working with families from countries all over the world changed me – it changed my perspective on life, family, resilience, blessings, and faith. I saw generosity that I never thought possible – families offering the last piece of bread in their cupboard because I was a guest, parents sacrificing everything for their children, communities pulling together to get through unimaginable challenges. These families make our nation better. And they make me better. But the personal journey was not always comfortable, because getting out of one’s comfort zone and interacting with people who are different from us rarely is comfortable. Nor is staying focused on the discomfort of facing the deep injustices of our society and our racial history, all the while maintaining optimism and working for change. But this is necessary work to see the injustice in our world, to meet the stranger, and to fight for good with light, rather than with more darkness.

Fourth, I always try to remind myself to build rather than tear down. Destroying is easy work – find a building that is going to be torn down and re-built and watch the day the bulldozers come. How quickly we can tear things down. It is the easiest thing in the world to do. It takes no precise measurements, no careful considerations, and very little cooperation or coordination. You just tear it all down. Building, however, takes all of the skills required of us as dignified and purposeful beings. Watch the place where that building was torn down over time and see how long it takes to rebuild. This is not easy work. To build something, to work with others as a team, to measure precisely, to adjust as challenges emerge, to make sure everything fits just right – this is a labor of love. There are enough forces pulling us apart in this age of extremism. Work to pull things back together. Be a builder. Give back from among the gifts that have been given to you. Respond to challenges with patience, and to good things that happen to you with gratitude and not ego.

Finally, after working to change how we think about the “non-profit” and for-profit realms, and working to bring these two closer together to solve the world’s problems, and engaging in a persistent commitment to one’s own growth and to fighting the darkness of injustice with light, and focusing on building things rather than tearing them down, the final important lesson I have learned in my life came from my time at UNICEF USA: do all of these things to build a world that works for children.

Because when we build a world that works for children, we build a world that works for all of us. I think that’s a principle we need more of in our times, a north star that can stem the rise of extremism and division, that can move the line between “for-profit” and “non-profit” to a healthier place, and that can help our generation engage in the rebirth of our democracy and a new, moral economy of well-being.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Visiting Atlanta should be about enjoying the natural beauty of the area, meeting the incredible leaders who are coming this city forward, enjoying the incredible entertainment scene in the city, and also making sure to visit the places where our economic inequities are most clear.

In terms of natural beauty, taking a walk up Stone Mountain or Arabia Mountain, or driving to the mountains, or taking a slightly longer trip to visit Cumberland Island, all will give one a sense of the beauty of the land.

In terms of the leaders of this area, the city is filled with past and present personalities who have changed the course of history. A visit to the King Center and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and the John Lewis Memorial – among many other places – will remind one of the central role that Dr. King, and John Lewis, and so many others from this area have played in fighting the deep injustices of our society through the optimism and faith of building something better together.

After some deeper reflection through these visits, going to one of the countless amazing restaurants in the city – Rumi’s Kitchen comes to mind first for me personally, or any number of small family-owned restaurants on Buford Highway – and then going to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to watch Atlanta United or the Falcons will show one the vibrancy of the city.

Finally, one must also visit the areas of the city where our economic inequalities are most clear: neighborhoods that have been underinvested in for generations, communities that have been intentionally marginalized, and places where people are unable to make ends meet despite the great prosperity of our city.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have to dedicate this to the co-founder of our clinic, Dr. Gulshan Harjee. She is a significant part of the story of my own personal growth and development, a friend, and a mentor.

Despite being forced to flee her country of birth, Tanzania, to Pakistan; then being forced to flee to Iran; and then finally fleeing after the revolution to the United States, Dr. Harjee has flourished and given back to our country for over 40 years. Despite her husband being shot in a random office shooting, she has flourished and given back to our country. Despite being a breast cancer survivor, she has flourished and given back to this country. Despite her second husband and her mother passing away recently, she has flourished and given back to this country.

Dr. Harjee has responded to the trials of this life with love, generosity, patience, and perseverance. She is the embodiment of the the best of America, bringing resilience and hard work and a commitment to the greater good to make our community, and our nation, a better place. And she is the embodiment of our shared faith, following the Quran’s guidance to give back in gratitude for all one has been given, counting our blessings rather than our trials, and treating others as we would like to be treated.

For me personally, when I see her in action, I see a person who every day is waking up and trying to figure out how she can make those around her happier and healthier. Her story inspires our work at Mosaic Health Center. As Dr. Harjee has embodied in her own life, we are dedicated to welcoming the stranger, healing the sick, and giving back to those in need with gratitude and love.

Image Credits
Diana Duarte (the 2 photos of our clinic – one outside and one inside)
Jeremy Cole (UNICEF photo)